Mariana Jiminez, a 71-year-old grandmother from the Ecuadorean Amazon, dips her hand
into the oil-black water in the precious marshlands off Louisiana's Gulf coast and
holds a dying, oil-drenched crab in her hand. She warns of the petroleum-laced
water, "This is very very dangerous. This is a poison that kills. Not instantly, but
it will kill slowly."
This week, four Indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador (Mariana, Emergildo,
Humberto and Luis), as well as advocates from Rainforest Action Network and Amazon
Watch, are deep in Louisiana's sweltering Bayou witnessing the depth of BP's oil
disaster.
The Ecuadorean delegation has come to share the hard-won lessons from Chevron's
Amazon oil disaster [
http://changechevron.org/blog/the-lasting-stain-of-oil-cautionary-tales-and-lessons-from-the-amazon/
] with the United Houma Nation and Atakapa-Ishak tribes, American Indian communities
dependent on a healthy Bayou for their very survival.
[from RAN]
Every Indigenous person we meet expresses fear and anxiety about losing their
ability to feed themselves and their families, and to continue their way of life on
the water...all because of BP's greed-driven failures.
These fears are by no means misplaced, as this is exactly what happened to the
Indigenous peoples of Ecuador's rainforest, at the hands of Chevron Corporation.
They too used to fish, but had to start farming to sustain themselves. They spoke of
the family members they've lost from oil-related birth defects and illnesses, and
warned the Houma of the long-term health problems they will be facing long after BP
and the TV cameras have left their shores.
As we walked along the deserted, oil-stained beach in Grand Isle, Brenda Dardar
Robichaux, former Principal Chief of the United Houma Nation, explained how struck
she was by the similarity of her story to the story of Indigenous peoples of the
Ecuadorean Amazon.
From Louisiana's Bayou to Ecuador's rainforest, you see the same oil-sheened
waterways and dying animals. You smell the same toxic stench in the air. Families
nurse their loved ones through oil-related illnesses, respiratory diseases, and
cancers while being told the same lie by oil companies and politicians alike- "the
oil won't hurt you."
In the heart of Houma territory, these communities have come together to find ways
to *hold reckless, criminal oil companies like BP and Chevron accountable*.
Check out news footage of their first days touring the Gulf [
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qoG8DSdhbY ], as well as the incredible photos on
Flickr. [
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/sets/72157624389276848/ ]
July 2nd, 2010
Tags: